Caldwell Hart Colt (November 24, 1858 – January 21, 1894) was an American

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

and yachtsman.

Biography

Caldwell Hart Colt was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of

Samuel Colt Samuel Colt (; July 19, 1814 – January 10, 1862) was an American inventor, industrialist, and businessman who established Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (now Colt's Manufacturing Company) and made the mass production of r ...

, founder of Colt's Patent Fire-Arms Manufacturing Company (now known as

Colt's Manufacturing Company Colt's Manufacturing Company, LLC (CMC, formerly Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company) is an American firearms manufacturer, founded in 1855 by Samuel Colt and is now a subsidiary of Czech holding company Colt CZ Group. It is the succ ...

) and Elizabeth Jarvis Colt. Caldwell Colt attended

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

and was known later in life for being a yachtsman. He served as vice-commodore of the New York Yacht Club in 1888 and commodore of the

Larchmont Larchmont is a village located within the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York, approximately northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The population of the village was 5,864 at the 2010 census. In February 2019, Bloomberg ranked Larc ...

Yacht Club from 1892–1893. He was the owner of the

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

''Dauntless'' and

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

''Wizard''. The New York pilot-boat ''Caldwell H. Colt'' was named in honor of Colt. Following in his father's footsteps as a gunmaker, in 1879 he designed the Colt double barrel rifle. This rifle was chambered in

.45-70 Government The .45-70 rifle cartridge, also known as the .45-70 Government, was developed at the U.S. Army's Springfield Armory for use in the Springfield Model 1873, which is known to collectors as the "Trapdoor Springfield." The new cartridge was a rep ...

and is one of the rarest Colt firearms that was ever made.

Death

Colt drowned in Charlotte Harbor Punta Gorda, Florida on January 21, 1894. His mother had a parish house built near Armsmear in his name opposite the Church of the Good Shepherd. The building was designed by

Edward Tuckerman Potter Edward Tuckerman Potter (September 25, 1831 – December 21, 1904) was an American architect best known for designing the 1871 Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut. With his half-brother William Appleton Potter, he also designed Nott M ...

who designed the earlier church on the site. The

Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House The Church of the Good Shepherd and Parish House is an Episcopal church at 155 Wyllys Street in Hartford, Connecticut. It was commissioned by Elizabeth Jarvis Colt, the widow of Samuel Colt, and completed in 1867. The church and its associate ...

is listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. She also renamed St. James Episcopal Church to Church of the Good Shepherd and bought a Tiffany stained glass window that is still there today in memory of her son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colt, Caldwell Hart 1858 births 1894 deaths 19th-century American inventors Colt's Manufacturing Company Firearm designers People of Connecticut in the American Civil War Sportspeople from Hartford, Connecticut Deaths by drowning in the United States Accidental deaths in Florida American male sailors (sport) Yale University alumni Colt family